Fireborn: Dark Phoenix

Taan's Money

The standardised trade currency – which is relatively straightforward to trade in across national borders – is the Guilder, named after Talras Guilder, the God of Wealth. The Guilder is a golden coin worth roughly an unskilled worker’s weekly earnings.

The Guilder has two subdivisions: the Shilling (1/100th Guilder, roughly the price of a decent cup of coffee) and the Pfennig (1/100th Shilling, roughly the price of a single bite of bread).

In practice most nations operate their own national currency, and expect people to use this in day to day transactions. For simplicity, Guilders will generally be used in gameplay rather than local currencies, since many reputable merchants accept Guilders as a ‘shadow currency’ since it can be converted into local currency at any Church of Talras.

One of the major roles of the Church of Talras is to exchange Guilders for local currency; or, if they cannot, they may offer personalised Scrip (letters of credit, or paper money) that can be used in the local area around the Church – anywhere that a merchant could return to the specific Church that issued it and get it redeemed. Most of the time such letters of credit are highly specific and non-transferable, to diminish the potential for theft; but not always.

The Church can also offer a variety of other exchange services, including assisting in the buying of transportable assets (e.g. gold, precious stones), bonds, gilts, and similar financial derivatives.

They do however require that the supplicant(s) making any exchange with them, either attend the next service or offer their devotions in some other way (even, or perhaps especially, via donations). Their usefulness and insistence on forcing people to hear their message, has helped the Church spread far and wide.

Note that the Cyraean Republic does not permit the Church of Talras within their borders.